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SNMP Overview

Network management takes place between two types of systems: those in control, called managing systems, and those observed and controlled, called managed systems. Managed systems can include hosts, servers, and the software components that run on those systems, or network components such as routers or intelligent repeaters.

To promote interoperability, cooperating systems adhere to the industry standard Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), an application-layer protocol designed to facilitate the exchange of management information between network devices.

A complete SNMP solution comprises three components:

• SNMP Management Information Base (MIB) is a database of managed objects. The managed objects, or variables, can be read by a managing system to provide information about the managed system.
• SNMP Agents are low-impact software modules that access information about the managed system and make it available to the managing system. For software systems, agent functionality is sometimes split between a master agent (provided by the host operating system) and subagent (provided by the managed application).

  Note: SNMP agents, which are a standard component of all SNMP implementations should not be confused with SiteMinder Agents.

• SNMP Manager is typically a Network Management System (NMS) application such as HP OpenView.

The SiteMinder SNMP module provides SNMP request handling and configurable event trapping for the SiteMinder environment. It does this by collecting operational data from the SiteMinder OneView Monitor and making it available in a MIB to third-party NMS applications that support the SNMP protocol (for example, HP OpenView).

Note: The 6.0 SNMP agent is backwards compatible with all SiteMinder 5.x-based Agent applications.